Himalayan Voices VOICES FROM ASIA 1. Of Women, Outcastes, Peasants, and Rebels: A Selection of Bengali Short Stories. Translated and edited by Kalpana Bardhan. 2. Himalayan Voices: An Introduction to Modern Nepali Literature. Translated and edited by Michael James Hutt. Himalayan Voices An Introduction to Modern Nepali Literature TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY Michael James Hutt UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford This book is a print-on-demand volume. It is manufac- tured using toner in place of ink. Type and images may be less sharp than the same material seen in traditionally printed University of California Press editions. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. Oxford, England © 1991 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Himalayan voices : an introduction to modern Nepali literature / translated and edited by Michael James Mutt, p. cm. — (Voices from Asia ; 2) Translated from Nepali. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-520-07046-1 (cloth). — ISBN 0-5204)7048-8 (paper) 1. Nepali poetry—20th century—Translations into Knglish. 2. English poetry—Translations from Nepali. 3. Short stories, Nepali—Translations into English. 4. Short stories, English— Translations from Nepali. 5. Authors, Nepali—20th century— Biography. 1. Mutt, Michael. II. Series. PK2598./95E5 1990 891'.49—dc:20 90-11145 CIP Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI 739.48-1984. © CONTENTS PREFACE xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XV NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION xvii Introduction / PART ONE THE POETS OF NEPAE // Nepali Poetry 13 Lekhnath Paudyal (1885-1961)) 22 A Parrot in a Cage 26 Himalaya 28 Remembering Samswati 29 An Ode to Death 30 Last Poem 30 Balkrishna Sama (1903-1981) 31 Man h God Himself 34 I Hate 35 AII-Pervading Poetry 35 from Sight of the Incarnation 36 Eakshmlprasad Devkota (1909-1959) 40 Sleeping Porter 44 from Muna and Madan 45 Prayer on a Clear Morning in the Month of Mdgh 51 Mad 53 Like Nothing into Nothing 56 VI CONTENTS Siddhicharan Shreshtha (b. 1912) 57 A Suffering World 59 No Smoke from the Chimneys 61 My Reflection 61 Untouchable 61 father Has Not Come Home 62 My Son 63 To the Poet Devkotd 64 Kedar Man "Vyathit" (b. 1914) 66 Fragment from the. Year '09 68 Ants 69 A Glimpse 69 The Storm 70 The End 71 War 71 The Practice of Sculpture 71 Gopalprasad Rimal (1918-1973) 73 A Mother's Dream 75 Consolation 76 A Mother's Pain 78 A Change 79 Who Are You'? 80 To — 81 Mohan Koirala (b. 1926) 82 Remembering as I Go 86 An Introduction to the Land 87 I Love Your Daughter 89 The Martyrs 90 I Remember 91 A Flower Amid the Mountain Rock 93 The Fiddle 93 The Snow Peak's Blood-Red 96 It's a Mineral, the Mind 97 You Who Remember 98 BairagI Kainla (b. 1939) 99 The Corpse of a Dream 102 A Drunk Man's Speech to the Street After Midnight 103 People Shopping at a Weekly Market 106 Parijat (b. 1937) 111 Sweep Away 113 To Gopalprasad Rimal's "To —" 114 A Sick Lover's Letter to Her Soldier 115 In the. Arms of Death 116 CONTENTS vii Bhupi Sherchan (1936-1989) 119 Always Always in My Dream 122 Midday and the Cold Sleep 123 I Think My Country's History Is a Lie 124 A Blind Man on a Revolving Chair 125 This Is a Land of Uproar and Rumor 127 New Year 128 A Poem 129 A Dove of Two Delicate White Hands: Your Greeting 130 Cold Ashtray 131 A Cruel Blow at Dawn 131 Banlra Giri (b. 1946) 132 Time, You Are Always the Winner 133 I Am a Torn Poster 135 Kathmandu 137 Woman 139 New Trends in Nepali Poetry 141 Bhairava Aryal (1936-1976) 143 A Leaf in a Storm 143 Haribhakta Katuval (1935-1980) 144 A Wish 144 This Life, What Life Is This? 145 Ishwar Ballabh (b. 1937) 145 The Shadows of Superfluous Songs 146 Where Is the Voice? 147 Hem Hamal (b. 1941) 148 Village and Town 149 Children Going to School 149 Before the Daivn 149 Krishnabhushan Bal (b. 1947) 150 April Wind 150 Historical Matters 151 Bimal Nibha (b. 1952) 152 Are You Quite Well, Oh Poet? 152 Ashesh Malla (b. 1954) 153 To the Children 153 None Returned from the Capital 154 Mlnbahadur Bishta (b. 1954) 155 What's in the Bastard Hills? 155 Thus a Nation Pretends to Live 157 Avinash Shreshtha (b. 1955) 157 A Spell 158 Headland 158 viii CONTENTS Bishwabimohan Shrcshtha (b. 1956) 759 Should I Earn My Daily Bread, or Should I Write a Poem? 159 PART TWO SELECTED SHORT STORIES 171 The Short Story in Nepali 173 Guruprasad Mainall (1900-1971) 189 A Blaze in the Straw 189 Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala (1915-1982) 197 The Soldier 197 To the Lowlands 201 BhavanI Bhikshu (1914-1981) 206 Will He Ever Return? 207 Mdujang Kdbusdheb's Coat. 214 Shivkumar Rfu (b. 1916) 224 The Murderer 224 Daulal Bikram Bishtha (b. 1926) 231 The Andhi Khold 231 Bijay Malla (b. 1925) 236 Sunglasses 236 The Prisoner and the Dove 240 Ramcsh Bikal (b. 1932) 244 A Splendid Buffalo 244 Shankar Larnichhane (1928-1975) 253 The Half-dosed Eyes of the Buddha and the Slowly Setting Sun 253 India Bahadur RaT (b. 1928) 260 Mama's Mother Is Just Like Us 260 Poshan Pandc (b. 1932) 266 A Sweater for Brother-in-law 266 Tarinl Prasad Koirala (1922-1974) 271 It Depends upon Your Point of View 271 Prema Shah 278 A Husband 278 Parashu Pradhau (b. 1943) 284 7'A(; Telegram on the Table 284 A Relationship 286 Dhruba Chandra (iautam (b. 1944) 290 The Fire 290 CONTENTS ix Manu BrajakI (b. 1942) 298 A Small Fish Squats by the Dholn Khold 298 Kishor Pahadi (b. 1956) 304 A Living Death 304 GLOSSARY 311 BIBLIOGRAPHY 317 INDEX 325 (Illustrations follow page 162) This page intentionally left blank PREFACE The compiler of any literary anthology is always liable to be accused of sins of omission and commission, and I do not expect to be spared. I began work on this project with the idea of producing two separate books: a much larger and more comprehensive selection of poems in English translation, including works by as many as forty poets, and an anthology of some thirty short stories. These objectives were modified for a number of reasons. It gradually became clear to me that the poetry of another culture can rarely be appreciated or understood fully if its authors are not properly introduced or presented in the context of their own historical and literary traditions. The approach I subsequently adopted was to provide an introduction to the works of a fairly limited number of important Nepali poets. At a later stage it dawned on me that although Nepali short stories contain a wealth of interesting material, many are simply less compelling in a strictly literary sense than are the more highly developed poetic genres. Each poet who is the subject of a separate chapter in Part One of this book has been chosen for reasons of significance, and the importance of the contribution each has made to Nepali poetry is explained in an introductory preamble to the selection of translated poems. The farther back into the historical past one ventures, the easier it becomes to assess the importance of individual poets. Thus, it is unlikely that any Nepali will wish to quarrel with my choice of the first six poets. It is inevitably more difficult to predict who will come to be regarded in future years as the most important Nepali poets of the more recent past. In general, however, I have relied on the assessments of Nepali critics and antholo- gists in my choice of both poets and poems. If a poet appears regularly in the four anthologies published by the Royal Nepal Academy and Sajha XI xii PRKFACF. Prakashan, it seems safe to assume that he or she is considered signifi- cant. I have adopted a similar rule with regard to the selection of poems for translation, although it must be admitted that personal taste and the extent to which I have felt satisfied with my translations have also played a part in this process. Thus, some poems are translated here because Nepali critics agree that they are important; others appear simply be- cause I have enjoyed them. My aim in Part Two has been to present translations of some of the most interesting and best-known examples of the short story in Nepali, to demonstrate the extent to which they describe life in Nepal, and to give some indication of the way in which the genre has developed. This selection has been "boiled down" from my original collection of more than thirty translated stories and is presented as far as possible in order of first publication. Obviously, each story was originally written by a Nepali for a Nepali readership. It should also be borne in mind that the authors are from a particular section of Nepali society—the educated urban middle class—and that these stories therefore inevitably reflect the prejudices, perceptions, and preoccupations of members of that, class. It is part of a translator's duty to explain and interpret, and I have- tried to do this as unobtrusively as possible with a fairly brief introduction to the genre and its themes and with an explanation of Nepali terms and cultural references in brief footnotes to the texts.